


Unexpected Warmth

by whimsycreator



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Apologies, Awkwardness, Emotional, Enemies to Friends, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I wrote this for school, Shyness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsycreator/pseuds/whimsycreator
Summary: Something with my OCs I wrote for school. Very limited worldbuilding because it focuses on relationship and emotions.Shy and insecure Margot LaRoche dislikes her classmate Pierce Royce for being rude to her, but when she is locked out of her college campus in the surrounding woods with him, she learns why Pierce feels the way he does and discovers there is more to him than meets the eye.
Relationships: Margot LaRoche (OC) & Pierce Royce (OC), OC & OC
Kudos: 2





	Unexpected Warmth

As soon as I got out of the taxi, I knew I had to sprint. I wasn’t exactly the best runner, and my health condition didn’t exactly help much. But I was rapidly running out of time.

In a matter of seconds, the curfew would begin to take effect.

I noticed my heart pumping extra fast in my anxious state. It was either giving me extra adrenaline or getting ready to give out at any moment. I kept running, praying in my head it was the first.

Here at Violet Ivy University, every student needed to be back at campus by midnight. Or else the gates surrounding the campus would close shut, leaving you stranded out in the dark, expansive stretch of woods surrounding the entire premises until the sun rose over the horizon.

Since when was the path to the entrance to the gates so long? If only there was a bike laying around that I could hop on, or just... something!

Once the gates were closed, there was no way for any creature to pass. This was to keep any woodland beasts that emerged from the innards of the woods at 12 AM from getting into the campus. Along with that, all taxi activity around the area stopped at 12 AM as well, so it was not like I could go somewhere else...

I would have to be stuck in the woods.

I continued to rush, my breath growing more frantic. In the foggy distance, I saw the gates in the midst of closing...!

No!

I used the last of my energy to sprint, almost collapsing... Haah...

No... I didn’t make it...

I got to the gates practically the second they closed.

Defeated, I pressed my hands to the heavy, compact stone wall that wouldn’t budge even an inch.

“Ahh... Damn...” I cursed quietly. I was still panting.

On top of all that, running along the path and exerting myself made my head hurt and rocked my equilibrium the way it did. In fact, the reason I was out so late in the first place was because I was getting a CT scan for a possible brain condition that was causing my headaches, dizziness, and increasingly poor vision in my left eye.

As soon as total anguish was about to settle in, I heard a voice come from behind me.

“Hey? Anyone there?” They asked. Wait... I recognized that sharp tone. That piercing voice. It was none other than my brash classmate, with the rather appropriate name.

It was him. Pierce Royce.

“Hey... Margot?” He asked once I turned around to look at him. “Margot LaRoche, Is that you?”

He gave a relieved sort of smile, an expression I seldom saw on him. I could tell he was also a bit shaken up at being locked out.

“You know, you’re the last sort of person I’d expect to be late back to campus.” He said, rather bluntly. “You have this total stuffy, ruthless attitude to you. You seem like you’d be very strict with time and all.”

Still, what came out of his mouth still had an edge to it.

“Well, even I slip up at times.” I said back to him. I wasn’t pleased. I really didn’t know what else to say.

Frankly, I didn’t get along well with Pierce.

Well... I had known him for two years. Within those two years, I had grown from being indifferent to him, to disliking him, to almost saying I could hate him.

Back during my freshman year of college, I was shy, lonely, and desperate to make any sort of lasting friendship. Up until that point in life, I mostly had just sat alone in all my classes and during lunch break, usually reading a book, studying, or planning and writing poetry.

Pierce was very much the opposite of me. He was lively, social, and quite outgoing. He had many friends, while I had nearly none.

I also noticed he was very blunt. Many people he hung out with didn’t mind, but I wasn’t exactly fond of how hurtful his words often were.

It didn’t help that I was very awkward when I first met him. In an attempt to make him laugh, I decided to open up to him with a joke relating to his rowdy attitude.

“Was your mother on drugs when she had you?” I had asked him. It was meant to be a light-hearted joke. I thought he was going to laugh.

Well, he didn’t.

I had an awful sense of humor, after all. I didn’t mean to be rude. I also probably forgot to smile. People did tend to describe my facial expressions as very wooden, not that I could really help it.

Anyway, Pierce thought I was insulting him.

Ever since then, he had insulted and belittled me almost every time we saw each other. And just like his name, his words had a tendency to pierce.

“I don’t think Margot should be our team’s speaker.” He would say about me, among similar things. “She has no charisma and would make us look like zombies.”

I also ended up becoming passionate about certain topics of change. I believed that the university was very unfair in many ways, including how students were locked out of the gates after midnight, and I wanted that to change.

Pierce mocked me about that as well.

“Margot, if you campaign for that and give speeches, nobody would listen to you. You have no personality to you. You don’t drive change.”

I tried standing up to him by proving him wrong. But he actually ended up being right. Nobody listened to me or cared about my ideas. It crushed me and drove me to give up.

I was a bit slow in realizing that Pierce probably took my joke as an insult, and by the time I did, I deemed it too late to apologize.

I didn’t like Pierce. I hated his inconsiderate, offensive attitude. But a part of me still felt the need to apologize.

Now I was literally was stuck out here with him. In the solid black woods, outside of the closed-off and unreachable campus, with only the dim light of our phones to illuminate our surroundings.

“So, I really don’t know what to do.” I started saying to him. “I’ve never been locked out before. I know we should try and find some safety from the beasts, but... what if we were to get lost?”

“Better to be lost than be attacked.” Pierce said. “You worry too much, Margot.”

I nodded slowly. I didn’t appreciate how he said it, but I did have a tendency to worry far too much.

After finding a hollowed out, cave-like clearing in a wide tree, I wondered if it would be a good time to drop my apology.

“Hey, um... Pierce.” I started saying again. “Actually, I... have something to tell you, I guess.”

“Yeah?” He asked me.

“Well...” I started saying again. “Remember the first thing I... said to you? About your mother having you when you were on drugs? Well, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for saying that. It was actually supposed to be a joke. I know it was a mean one, but I didn’t really think it through when I asked it. I don’t really have a good sense of humor, so...”

“Yeah, I knew it was a joke.” Pierce said. “It wasn’t a very good one. But thanks for apologizing.”

“...Oh.” I said again.

He insulted me, but accepted my apology?

“Well, it’s just,” Pierce started saying again, “I guess I take those kinds of things personally. You see, my older brother was actually born a heroin addict. So yeah, my mother was on drugs when she had my older brother. It really isn’t something to joke about.”

“Oh.” I said softly. “I’m... really sorry.”

Suddenly, I felt regretful and emotional.

“Thank you for understanding.” Pierce said.

“So, um, Pierce.” I spoke again. “Thank you for telling me this. I feel I understand you better now and know why you always said those things to me. I’m sorry that my words offended you.”

“I’m sorry too.” Pierce said. “I shouldn’t have picked on you either. You know what, Margot? You’re actually a lot kinder than you let on. Maybe if you showed it, more people would want to be your friend.”

“But... you said it yourself.” I said, choking up a bit. “I’m dull and standoffish. I don’t drive change, and all I did was give up.”

“See? You’re not going to make friends with that attitude.” Pierce said. “You really should start with smiling more and showing how you feel, like you are now. Nobody wants to be friends with a hollow shell, after all.”

“So, that’s all people saw me as?” I gave into tears and couldn’t help but cry softly. I hated crying in front of others. In fact, it was difficult for me to show any emotions in front of others... I wondered why that was for me.

“Hey, don’t be sad.” Pierce said. “I got to learn a lot about you. When we get out of this situation, well... maybe I’ll get to learn even more about you.”

“Okay.” I nodded and said.

“Well, let it out if you want. I can tell you’ve been keeping it in all the time. It’ll be good for you.” Pierce said.

I cried a bit more and took deep breaths. After I calmed down, I noticed it was becoming very cold in the place we were retreating, and the batteries on our phones were getting low.

We thought about starting a fire. Luckily, there was enough wood scattered around inside the tree, so neither of us had to go outside.

“Pierce...” I said to him. “You know, you’re actually really nice as well.” I said. “Your words aren’t nearly as... piercing as they once were.”

“Oh. Haha, is that really how you used to think of me?” Pierce said. But he was laughing.

“Oh, um...” I grew a bit nervous.

“It’s fine.” Pierce said. “I don’t think either of us really learned who each other truly were until now.”

I smiled, feeling the gentle warmth of the fire in my face. 

Unlike before, I finally felt at ease around Pierce. I was actually looking forward to getting to know him better.

**Author's Note:**

> Margot LaRoche OC profile-
> 
> Margot LaRoche is 22 years old and in college. Her birthday is January 1st. She’s Creole. She is a literature and linguistics major, she’s bilingual and speaks English and French. She loves books and literature, is serious, somewhat strict, and shy and awkward. She is quite insecure about being perceived as bookish and dull, and often wishes she were more outgoing and lively, or perhaps even a different person altogether. She is bisexual.
> 
> Margot stands at 5’7” and has a slim and moderately curvy physique, medium brown skin with freckles, fluffy light ash-beige hair (more of an off-white), indigo eyes, and a trademark monocle on her left eye (which from our perspective, is on her right.) (I HAVE A THING FOR MONOCLES and this was even before I discovered Soune Taya ok...)
> 
> Margot’s best friend is Catina Leon. Even though the two are quite different, Catina’s outgoing and cheerful attitude coaxes Margot out of her shell and encourages her to be more confident.
> 
> She is a very kind person, though people are usually turned off by her blunt mannerisms and stiff facial expression. People have described the look in her eyes as “scary and strict-looking.”
> 
> Margot harbors a somewhat hidden love of animals, especially cats. Her favorite food is cheesecake.
> 
> For a significant part of her life, Margot has a benign tumor in her brain that causes her migraines, fatigue, and her to faint randomly. She doesn’t get it diagnosed until midway in her story, when she starts having seizures that prompt her to go to the hospital and get a brain MRI. The tumor also causes the bad vision in Margot’s left eye that needs the monocle.
> 
> Pierce Royce is an OC I made up on the spot for this assignment. I visualize Pierce as Austrian (white) and having pink hair (Yes, pink. Don't tell my creative writing teacher.) I just wanted Margot to have someone she initially disliked due to misunderstandings, but can eventually bond with.


End file.
